*****
*Corey*
“Ian says we should get some bus tickets, he’s depositing the money into Izzy’s bank account,” I said returning the phone to my pocket.
“Great. If the bus drives straight through we should be home in about two days,” Sean sighed in relief.
I glanced over at Jayden to see him seated on the couch beside Adan and Hayley. He had not said a word to me or Kaden since before we got onto that bus. Hayley mumbled something that made all three of them begin to laugh amongst themselves and I felt a little jealous. Everyone had just chosen to forget about the incident before the bus came, I was happy Jayden didn’t seem too rattled by it beyond being pissed at me. Though, I was slightly annoyed Hayley was the one that had made him laugh and not me.
“What are you laughing about?” Izabella narrowed her eyes at them.
“Nothing.” The trio responded in unison. The reply did exactly what I expected, it made everyone else in the room suspicious of them. They were so childish.
“Hey, Jay. We have no TV.” Trent said. It was true. We had rented a lousy little motel room and three others beside it because there was a max of two beds in each one – no sharing allowed. There was no TV – not even a radio in any of them. Nothing but beds, a lot of boredom and a stale odour filled these rooms. We had to open all the windows to breathe properly, at least the price suited the condition, and thus we could actually afford it for the night.
“Oh…? Why are you telling me this?” Jayden asked confused.
“Well… Make some music.” Izabella smiled.
“Yeah, sing.” Rita sat up.
“I wouldn’t… Besides… My guitar blew up.” Jayden’s voice lowered when he mentioned the guitar. It made me purse my lips, I had not noticed. I felt bad for not noticing that something obviously very important to him was gone.
“You don’t need a guitar, come on, Jay. Sing. Just this once?” Rita pushed.
“Nah.” Jayden glanced at me, immediately averting his eyes to the carpet when they met mine. I chuckled. It was adorable when he reacted to my watching him like that.
“Come on, Jay.” Sean said.
Jayden shook his head in response but everyone pretended not to see that and began to speak as if he had agreed. It would have irritated me, but he did not look upset and I wanted to hear him sing as well.
“How about an Olly Murs song?” Izabella asked.
“Who’s Olly Murs?” Jayden voiced my thoughts.
“Yeah, who is that?” Adan asked looking at his sister questioningly.
Izabella rolled her eyes and tossed her phone at Jayden whose hands were basically butter because the phone slipped right through them and landed on Adan’s lap. Jayden looked adorably embarrassed while apologising as we laughed. Adan just chuckled handing him the phone before he played the song. It was a jolly, upbeat kind of song… kinda fun.
“Why don’t we just play the song?” Jayden asked.
“Because we have you!” Hayley said. Jayden rolled his eyes before he began doing something on Izabella’s phone, his fingers tapping the screen quickly.
“‘…Name is Olly’… But my name isn’t Olly.” Jayden looked up.
“Just sing, damn it.” I grinned as Kaden faked a glare at his best friend.
“Fine!” Jayden rolled his eyes.
I leaned back against the wall crossing my arms as he began playing the backtrack.
“My name is Olly. Nice to meet you, can I tell you, Baby…?” He wasn’t looking up so I assumed he was reading the lyrics as he went like Karaoke. I would bet that he also wasn’t looking up because he was shy and voiding all of our eyes. I smiled watching him as he sang. He sounded so amazing. I could honestly listen to him sing for hours… or just speak. His voice was great either way.
I chuckled as Sean got up and grabbed Izabella’s hand.
“I just want you to dance with me tonight!” He chimed in with Jayden as they began dancing sillily, because honesty, neither of them could dance to save their lives.
Trent and Rita quickly joined them and then Kaden grabbed Hayley and everyone just began messing around.
“No…” I groaned as Hayley and Rita grabbed my hands and pulled my arms out of their crossed position.
“Shut up and dance with us!” I laughed seeing Hayley’s dark stare as she yelled at me. I decided there was nothing I could do but obey as they forced Adan to get up too.
“Are you serious?” Zeke chuckled as Izabella dragged him to his feet.
“This isn’t fun. Why do I have to be the audio?” Jayden’s voice was laced with a light whine as he looked at all of us when the song was done and we began laughing at the pouty look on his face. He always looked cute when he was annoyed.
“Just put it on shuffle,” Izabella said. Jayden did and the first song that came on was some hip hop song which Zeke immediately began dancing to. It instantly drew cheering from everyone as we tried to hype him up. It was fun.
“You didn’t tell us you could dance!” Rita said.
“You never asked,” Zeke shrugged, “I had to make money somehow, being a lone teen wolf and all, so I danced. Actually made a good living… sometimes.”
“We can see why,” Sean mumbled. I laughed remembering Sean’s terrible dancing earlier. He turned to glare at me and opened his mouth but shut it. I smirked. He didn’t have a comeback concerning dance when it came to me.
“Dance, Corey!” Izabella ordered.
“Pfft, no. You’re not my mother.” I frowned.
“Scared Zeke’s better than you are?” Sean smirked.
“No one is better than me and you know it.” I had a bunch of trophies to prove that fact. Though, Zeke was a pretty great dancer himself.
“We’re messing around, Corey. It isn’t one of your competitions, have some fun, teach us something because you think we suck.” Hayley said. I laughed but listened to her as I joined Zeke and we began messing around trying to teach the others how to move. Maybe fun would do me good. It seemed like ever since we decided to change our wishes, the only person, the only thing I could think about was Jayden. All the time.
We spent the rest of the night dancing, joking and stuffing our faces with junk food – well, Sean, Hayley and I were watching the others stuff their faces – before everyone went to bed. I tried to as well but I just couldn’t seem to fall asleep, the room seemed too stuffy, too warm, the bed felt bad and my eyes would not stay shut.
Eventually, I gave up on sleep and sat up. Zeke was asleep across the room and I wished I was him because I was exhausted.
I got up and walked out of the room hoping some fresh air would do me good. Only, I didn’t get any fresh air, I got smoke blown into my face by the wind. I wasn’t a huge fan of cigarettes, my favourite uncle died from cancer after smoking like his life depended on it. I could not remember seeing him without a cigarette between his fingers. I frowned and walked in the direction of the smoke because that was the only way to the stairs.
I was beyond shocked when I walked around the corner and my eyes fell on Jayden puffing away.
“You smoke?” He jumped in surprise, clearly having been too distracted to pay attention to someone being nearby before he tried to hide the cigarette behind him.
“Uh – N-no.” He stuttered before letting out an aggravated sigh, “Not usually… anymore.” He muttered as he leaned back against the wall and brought the cigarette back to his lips.
“Why?” I asked leaning against the railing across him.
“It helped me sleep… Hopefully, it helps me sleep now.” He mumbled blowing another cloud of white smoke into the wind while trying to aim it away from me.
“Let me guess: you expect me to shut up about your little… addiction?” I asked stepping closer to him.
“It’s not an addiction. I haven’t smoked in years. And yes, you better keep quiet about it.” He sent me a glare as he threw the bud on the ground and stepped on it before drawing another cigarette out of the box.
My eyes fell to his feet. He was currently lighting his fourth one.
“How long have you been out here?” I reached out and snatched the cigarette from him, along with the box before I threw it all out on the ground and stepped on it watching his jaw drop as he stared at my foot.
“Corey –! I fucking paid for that!” He hissed looking back at me.
“Aw… No refunds? I’m sorry.” I said mockingly as I ran my foot over the mess of tobacco at our feet.
He opened his mouth but then shut it before shaking his head while looking both drained and defeated. I watched as he slid down the wall and sat on the ground before resting his arms on his knees to hide his face in them.
“Leave.” He demanded calmly.
“I’m not leaving until you tell me what your nightmares are about,” I said.
“Take a seat and get comfortable then because you’ll be here a long, long time.” He replied not looking at me.
I sighed running my hand through my hair in frustration. “Jayden, I’m trying to help you!”
“You can’t! You don’t understand. You won’t understand. Please, just drop it.” His breath was faster now, “Stop making me….” He spoke so softly that I had only just heard it.
“What?” I asked carefully. Making him what?
“Please.” His voice was barely audible now. I sighed taking a seat on the ground beside him.
“You’re going to have to tell me what the hell this is about sometime, Jayden,” I said. He didn’t answer me, he just looked up and gave a weak smile before yawning. I extended my legs out in front of me and sighed. “You have to sleep, Babe.” His eyes widened slightly at the name which made me glad I had called him that. I was just playing around with it, but it sounded nice directed to him.
“Can I…?” He drifted staring into my eyes.
“Sure.” I shrugged feeling like I already knew what he was about to ask.
Him laying down on his back and leaning his head on my lap as he shut his eyes proved that I was right. I smiled down at him as his breathing became even and he fell asleep quickly.
—–
*Kaden*
“I can’t find Jay,” I said in a panic as I shoved Sean’s door open not really caring if he was still asleep.
“Corey’s gone too.” Zeke came in behind me. I let out a breath of relief. At least now I knew he was probably with Corey and not by himself or with his father.
“Those two keep disappearing.” Sean shook his head as he walked out of the bathroom, “Even though they’re always arguing.” He mumbled.
Adan chuckled. “Shouldn’t we get some snacks for the bus ride considering that we’ll be in there for two days?” He asked.
“We should. Kaden, Adan. You go.” Sean said.
“Why don’t you go?” Adan frowned.
“You suggested it and I’m lazy right now,” Sean said. Adan rolled his eyes.
“I still can’t believe you’re going to be Alpha.” He said getting up. Sean smirked.
“Believe it.” He pointed to his chest where I assumed his Alpha tattoo was. Mine was on my back.
Adan shook his head in disbelief that made me chuckle because he had known Sean was going to be Alpha his entire life and it still caught him by surprise. “Give me your card,” He said. Sean opened his mouth to argue before laughing.
“Oh, right! You’re dead.” He said as Adan gave him an unimpressed stare, “Were – you were dead.” He corrected himself as he handed over the card while stating the pin before Adan grabbed my shoulders to steer me out of the room.
“This place is not that bad of a motel.” He said as we were walking down the hall outside.
“Yeah.” I agreed. The place was a lot cleaner than others, with exception of the smell.
As we turned the corner Adan stopped and chuckled. I looked up confused before tilting my head I spotted what he was laughing about.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered as we walked over to the two bodies currently occupying the hallway floor and blocking the route to the stairs.
I frowned seeing Jayden in foetal position, his head resting on Corey’s legs. Corey’s head was leaned back against the wall, his mouth slightly open and his hand resting on Jayden’s head, the other just below Jayden’s arm on his chest.
“Smells like tobacco.” I looked at Adan before following his eyes to the ground. There was crushed tobacco on the ground with little papers surrounding it and a box beside it. It looked like someone had stepped on it. “It isn’t Corey’s. He doesn’t smoke. His uncle died because of it, he would never smoke… So Jay?” He looked at me.
I frowned looking at Jayden. “Yeah, he used to. He probably smoked again and I’m guessing Corey didn’t like it.” I said before a smirk grew onto my face as I looked back at the pair.
“Kade, don’t –” Adan began.
“Hey!” I shouted making both Corey and Jayden jerked awake wide-eyed until Corey’s eyes fell on me and turned into a death glare that would have made the strongest person beg for mercy.
“Ah, crap – it-it wasn’t me!” I jumped over them and began running down the hall towards the stairs.
“I’m going to fucking kill you, Kaden!” I could hear Corey behind me.
“Help!” I laughed picking up my speed.
*****
Comment